Monday, October 5, 2009

Football Season Update

I love watching Ian break tackles and leave behind nothing but sad faces and dust ;)This year has been a whole new crazy adventure with football. I still have no great love for the sport myself, but enjoy watching Ian play and being involved with the team. This is their fifth year playing together with pretty much the same bunch of kids and coaches. They did have one 'star' player leave a couple years ago, but they beat the pants off the team he's on now so it's all good ;)

This spring Ian was invited to play indoor ball with a bunch of the kids from his regular season team and a couple newcomers. I didn't have a whole lot of expectations going into the season, but it turned out to be quite a boost to all the kids who played. In fact, one of the spring ball first-timers is now quite the animal on the regular season team, leading the team in sacks.

Ian fought a bit with pain and injuries for most of spring ball. He had sore heels and tweaked his neck a bit (with some help from a 250 lb lineman...). In the end, I think he toughened up a bit and hopefully started to understand why flexibility is a good thing especially when big kids are after you with the intention of sqeezing you in half until the football you're running away with pops loose.

After a summer working out with his grandpa and doing some reluctant stretching/screaming, he was more than ready to start regular season ball with the exception of 10 small problems; he was over the weight limit for ball carriers and would have to either shave off 10 lbs or play as a lineman. For Ian the whole point of football is the ball, so lineman wasn't an option.

We checked our owners manual and found that nothing on Ian was readily detachable meaning he would have to burn off 10 lbs he didn't have to burn :( If ever you have had the chance to see the kid eat, you'll know he calls breakfast, lunch, and dinner 'appetizers' and considers the contents of the refridgerator an after-school snack. I wasn't hopeful, but he was determined. Considering that Ian usually shows determination in one activity (staying asleep) we were happy to support him however we could.

It required some hard work, lots of sweat and tears, and a bunch of spitting, but Ian was willing and compliant throught the whole bit. For a kid whose primary method of communication is through non-compliance (secondary would be various body odors) this was just shy of miraculous. He even held out through candy torture during a sleep-over with his cousins.

The collective relief of the entire team as Ian hopped off the scale after making weight is why I enjoy football. It was a hard earned win for the entire team. We celebrated by letting Ian eat until he puked (hopefully that's the only celbratory puking of any kind he ever does ;)

The rest of the season has been pretty smooth in comparison. Hillcrest changed leagues this year so they no longer play Granstville or Park City which were the two big competitors. He's done slightly better at staying limber and stretching before practice and games but has yet to touch a toe.

He's working on a pretty sweet spin move that has payed off with whole lot of yardage this year and is still kicking really well. We just hope he continues breaking tackles and egos rather than bones this year :D